LONDON/NEW YORK/MUMBAI, June 27 (Reuters) - In April, aftergold dived more than $200 an ounce in two days, an unprecedentedscramble to buy everything from coins to jewellery at "bargain"prices helped arrest the plunge, tempering fears of a prolongedrout.

But not this time, say dealers and jewellers, who reportthat consumers across the world are reluctant to buy even aftera price decline of almost $200 in 10 days as investors rushed toliquidate their gold in anticipation of the Federal Reserve'sscaling back its bond-buying stimulus since November 2008.

The failure of everyday consumers to rush to gold's rescue,as they did two months ago, suggests that prices may have muchfurther to fall as investors rush to liquidate, analysts say.

"The coin business is definitely a lot slower than April.They are not lining up outside of the store," Craig Sklar, ownerof Ridgewood Coin & Stamp Gallery in New Jersey, said.

Spot gold fell 2 percent to below $1,200 an ounce onThursday, its lowest level since August 2010. It is now on trackfor a record quarterly drop of 25 percent.

The absence of retail or collector buying likely has manycauses. Many consumers stocked up on gold in April and May, whenthey reckoned prices were a bargain, leaving them less money orcause to buy even more this time around.

With only two days left in the month, sales of the U.S.Mint's American Eagle gold coins in June stand at only 47,000ounces - one-fifth as much as in all of April, when sales hit a3-1/2 year high. Silver Eagles sales are down 20 percent.

"The low prices back in April caused people to bring forwarddemand. Now, there's no additional demand," says Ric Deverell,Head of Commodities Research at Credit Suisse.

Other factors are choking demand in India and China, whichbuy more than half of the world's physical gold, includingrecent import trade restraints and a liquidity squeeze.

Although activity has picked up a bit from earlier in themonth, it has been underwhelming thus far.

Coin buying is "not as active as I thought it would havebeen," said Michael Kramer, president of Manfra, Tordella &Brookes (MTB), a major U.S. wholesale coin dealer in New York.

(Global gold demand: http://r.reuters.com/vex85t)

INDIA IMPORT LIMITS ADD TO WOES

In India, soaring gold import levies and a record low in therupee against the dollar following a 40 percent drop since 2011dealt a double whammy to any hopes of strong physical demand inthe second half of this year from India, traditionally thebiggest bullion consumer.

India recently introduced measures requiring importers topay upfront for inventory, making it difficult for smallerjewellers with lower working capital to source supplies. Thegovernment also raised the import duty to 8 percent in May tokeep a lid on the surging current account deficit.

"It's difficult to garner capital for paying cash toimporting agencies to get the stocks," Rathod said. "I analysedmy costs and benefits, and considering that I felt it's notworth unless business is in big volumes."

While in dollar terms gold is now more than $100 anounce below its April low, Indian gold futures are still3 percent above their cheapest that month, further discouragingprice-sensitive Indian consumers.

Concerns over bank liquidity in China, which rocked stockmarkets in Shanghai this week, may also be weighing on golddemand in the short term, analysts said, as buyers worry aboutthe impact of a slowdown in Chinese growth and a possible creditcrunch.

"There is no buying spree," said one analyst with a physicalgold investment firm in China. Some buyers are hoping priceswill fall further, he said. But also some "bought too much whengold prices fell to $1,300 and now their cash is tight."

BOTTOM EYED

In the United States, some wholesalers see a reversal of theprevious trend, with retail investors selling metal back ontothe market rather than hoarding it as earlier this year.

"I am actually starting to get some calls to liquidatephysical metals, and that was nowhere to be found in April,"said Brad Yates, metals trader at major U.S. refiner NTR BullionGroup in Dallas.

Eric Harris, co-owner of New York speciality jewellery storeNiletti Creations, said he's bought scrap metal from customerswho "want to catch the price before it drops even more."

Investors, not individuals, are likely to hold the key forprices, however. The world's eight largest gold ETFs lost 530tonnes of gold in the first half of 2013, equivalent to about 10percent of annual gold production.

"Net/net, the selling that we've seen over the last fewweeks has been stronger than the buying that has come throughfrom the traditional physical markets," says Michael Widmer, ananalyst at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch.

"If you want higher prices, it will not necessarily comethrough the buy side, sales have to subside."

(Additional reporting by A. Ananthalakshmi in Singapore;Editing by Leslie Gevirtz)